Great example of the revolutionary movement in the United States. Black nationalism can be un-Marxist but then again so can any kind of nationalism. It really depends to what extent nationalism is stressed. i.e. black-white seperatism is pretty un-Marxist; whereas, the promotion of ones ancestry (African) isn't. Post 1964-5 I don't think any major revolutionary group promoted seperatism and the BPP did promote class war over race war.

"In our view it is a class struggle between the massive proletarian working class and the small, minority ruling class. Working-class people of all colors must unite against the exploitative, oppressive ruling class. So let me emphasize again -- we believe our fight is a class struggle and not a race struggle." - Bobby Seale (co-founder of the BPP) in Seize the Time

Self-defense were feeding the children major aspects of the BPP but the largest is organizing the lumpenproletariat as a revolutionary force. Mao breifly mentioned organizing the lumpen but no group to my knowledge advocates making them the vanguard.

"By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master?" - Walter Rodney

Soviet cogitations: 35Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 09 May 2010, 06:16Pioneer

24 May 2010, 21:32

I don't necessarily consider it "nationalism" in the traditional sense, but given the initial conditions the Panthers faced, it was just an emphasis on black unity, and from that extended unity with all races so long as they remained in acceptance of each other. A sense of "nationalistic," but moreover unified rebellion against white, bourgeois figures too.

"The Party operated on love for black people, not hatred of white people."

From a communist perspective of things, I suppose a lot of ones perception of the Panthers rests on whether or not you agree with Maoism, or at least to what extent you do.

Secondly, they denigrate the Party's name by promoting concepts absolutely counter to the revolutionary principles on which the Party was founded. Their alleged media assault on the Ku Klux Klan serves to incite hatred rather than resolve it. The Party's fundamental principle, as best articulated by the great revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was: "A true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love." The Black Panthers were never a group of angry young militants full of fury toward the "white establishment." The Party operated on love for black people, not hatred of white people.

Malcolm X in 1963 wrote:

"You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you're making progress ... No matter how much respect, no matter how much recognition, whites show towards me, as far as I am concerned, as long as it is not shown to everyone of our people in this country, it doesn't exist for me."

"By what standard of morality can the violence used by a slave to break his chains be considered the same as the violence of a slave master?" - Walter Rodney

well i was kidding, and of course there's a large difference when somebody from the black panthers says that and somebody from the klu klux klan or nazi party says it. but it is strikingly similar. now it is true that compared to the new black panther party, it makes a whole lot of difference.